Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-02-25
BRAGG ON DEPENDENTS
THE WISCONSIN STATESMAN TALKS
RIGHT OUT IN MEETIN',

States-Hot Shot All Along the Line of
the Pension Veto Fight-Hepburn Asks
oues.ions-A Presid entail Endorsement
Tho Veto Sustained, However, for
Want of a Two Thirds Vote.
WASHINGTON CITY, Feb. 25-The debate
which preceded the vote on the presidents
veto of the dependent pensions bill
n the house Thursday could be
called animated" without particle of ex-
aggeration. The report of the pensions conf
mittee on the veto was in favor of overriding
the same, and the advocates of the bill took
the floor Warner of Missouri, Grosvenor,
Burrows, OHara, and others declared the
veto mistake and claimed that the bill did
simple justice to a large number OF good
soldiers
Then Bragg opened fire. He said the PEG
pie should thank the president for this veto
The beneliciarieS of the bill were rot soldiers,
but bummers, descrters, coffee-coolers, and
bounty jumpers. The bill was an imputa-
tl0n on the true soldiers, and from that i'm
puration he would defend them The bill had
been advocated and passed because those
VINO would receive the money could vote
The G A r., he said, at its last grand en-
campment had passed resolutions condemn
ing service pension of $ month. This
bill would grant pensions to tine scuul-the
very dregs Of the earth--to the men who had
served from December, tS6l, to June, 1865
men who were paid from 500 to $500, with
the private assurance that they were physi-
cally so defective that all they had to do was
tp n tha hcSpital AS IN tho yUhr
were found in aims houses, they had come
from them and simply lapsed into their old
condition. No soldier need go to the aims
house. These men had no self respect; they
laid down and opened their mouths for
teat to suck. He knew gentlemen who had
committed themselves day after day in oppo-
sition to the principle of the ill and were
grateful for the veto.
[Cries of Name them "Who are they n
Bragg-The Republican congressmen-all
of them.
1.-The reply was greeted with applause
laughter and jeers, the spectators joining
with those on the floor in demonstrations OF
| approval and disapprovaLl
Bragg asserted that the press was against
the bill. The gentlemen who sat up aleft -
| [pointing to the press galleryI-might also
some time turn this big pension boom into a
boomerang in some gentlemen's districts
Henderson of iowa-Ws have Jared as well
in our districts as the gentleman has in his.
This reference to Bragg's failure to secure
| reelection was greeted with loud and pro-
| longed laughter by the RepublicanSl
| Bragg repeated that the press was opposed
| to the bill. The great Republican paper of
| his state stood by the president, and so did
the great Republican paper OF Pennsylvania
The papers in New York, almost without
distinction, vera with the president The
great soldier Palmer, of Illinois, stood by the
| president. Governor Cox, of.Oaio, stood by
the president Old Dan Sickles, of the
| Third army corps, said that the veto was a
most glorious deed. Brave men of all par
| ties stood by the president 1t was only the
little minds that went bUzzng about like in
sects around the lines that opposed him.
| Henderson of owa-[Coutemptuouslyl
You stand by the president.
| Bragg No staff commissary can ever ex-
| cite ME, | am speaking for what | consider
| the soldiers intereSt Confederate soldiers,
without hope, are toilng day by day and
| exhibiting a thrift, industry and energy never
expected of them, while the northern man
lags behind into idleness. Whyi Because
he is waiting for his stipend to come from the
| government and " hen that stipend comes II
isspent quickly.
Steele of 1ndiana--How about the Mex.
| lean pension billi
! Bragg-I have said that | wish the
| president had vetoed it. You all voted foI
| the bill, and now you have discovered that il
| is monstrosity
| Morrison--I am satisfied that the bill does
not contain what Its friends claim for it,
and it is fairly subject to the objections
urged against it in the veto Besides, the
veto is SO far above the bigh water mark OF
ordinary executive independence AMI official
manhood thas feel like sharing and taking
my little part of the responsibility. Zap
plause on the Democratic siie1
Hepburn of Iowa commented on the fact
| that every gentleman who had spoken IN Cd
| position to the bill, save one. had voted ful
! it originally. There must be some reasor
| for this. \ large number OF them. like him
self, terminated their official lives on the I'll
of March, and large number of them, un
| like himself, were now about the Whit,
House bending the pregnant hinges of th,
knee that thrift may follow fawning.n
| loud cheers and laughter on the Repub
| llCan side
There was q time when Benedict Arnolt
rode along the line and when he met wit!
i the acclaim of brave soiiiery everywhere
! vet there was another period In his life wher
/ he held an interview with an American o!
English soil-he not daring to come on Amer
lean soil. He asked what his old coura dc
4 yr011ld In oh,
They would cut off your leg that We
wounded at Saratoga and bury it with tn
honors of war, and the rest OF your carcas
they would hang on the g!bbetn The state
mcnt Of the gentleman from Wisconsin
[BrGggl that the Grand Army has repudiatet
this bill was as untrue in word and essauc
a. the greater portion of all of his diatribe @
abuse against his own comrades. 1t was No
an uncommon thing for skilled huntsma
20 Use decoys. So 1t is that the solid south
that opposes this bill and that stimulate
this veto-puis forward all of these norther
seaitlsnlen to represent it. Not one of then
Tor political reasons, has had the courage {
his conviction and has dared to speak here q
he will vote. Why
Matson Of Indiana closed the debate II
would not attempt, he said, to indulge il
any imaginative flights, or to make any ora
torical display. He desired to speak plainly
and he spoke for himself, for the comm
tee, for the bill, an for no one ell, He b,
Leved that the president had right to vet
legislation on other than constitution!
grounds, and he believed that the preser
executive had in many instances wisel
made use of that right 1t had been h
pleasure and his duty to stand here and d.
fend the president when that officer had il
terPosed his objection to legislation. Fl
would be glad if he could stand to-day an
support the presidents veto, and present. t
the country united party in support c
that veto, if his conscience and his hear
would permit it. But he was driven an
impelled to take the course he had, because
and only because, he believed it to be hi
duty as legislator to ask the house to pas
this bill over the veto of the president.